Witness alleges 'Bolle Jos' tried to steal 4 tons of coke during Overasselt murder

Prosecutors say the fugitive drug trafficker Jos “Bolle Jos” Leijdekkers tried to seize nearly four metric tons of cocaine from Jan G. at the same time more than 30 heavily armed men attacked Jan G.’s home in the Dutch village of Overasselt, where a 51-year-old security guard was murdered. The information reportedly comes from statements of a key witness, Het Parool reports.

The witness, a 47-year-old former freight forwarder from the Rotterdam area who is now a co-defendant of Jan., the convicted drug criminal, told investigators he frequently cleared four containers of cocaine on the orders of a trafficker known as “Maestro.”

The forwarder said he met Maestro twice in hotels in Dordrecht and later exchanged many messages with him. Shown a photograph of Jan G., the witness identified him as Maestro with “1,000 percent” certainty.

In the early hours of September 1, a large group of men, some heavily armed, attacked the home of 28-year-old Jan. in Overasselt. The security guard, called Berry Leenders, was shot dead. First arriving police officers were also shot at and injured. One of the officers survived only after emergency treatment by colleagues.

About two hours later, while walking his dog at 6:30 a.m., the witness was approached by a Flemish-speaking man who addressed him by his first name and later identified himself as “Benni McCarthy.” The man ordered him to stop all contact with Maestro, handed him a phone, and told him to turn on the camera. A video call then allegedly connected to a man the witness recognized from television as Bolle Jos Leijdekkers.

Leijdekkers said something would appear in the news that required him to stay away from Maestro. He also added that a truck carrying Leijdekkers’ cocaine had been intercepted at the Spanish-French border because Jan G. had cheated him. Shortly afterward, news of the Overasselt attack broke, which the witness said confirmed that Maestro was Jan G.